Two
fundamental facts - that soldiers in the field like to
receive mail and that armies move, lead to the development
of numbered post offices for military postal services. Add
to those the value of anonymity of location for security.
The practice did not begin in the United States or during
World War II. It goes at least as far back as the Franco
Prussian war in the 1870’s. The United States employed a
system of numbered army post office during its role in the
First World War.

The
system of A.P.O.’s that serviced the army and army air corps
during the Second World War began before the American entry
into the war, and continues with some modifications through
today. In the spring of 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt
entered into an agreement with the government of the United
Kingdom to exchange 50 destroyers for 99 year leases to
establish military bases in several British Caribbean
colonies. Army Post Office numbers were assigned to each of
these new bases as the troops arrived to garrison them. The
number of American servicemen stationed outside the
boundaries of the continental United States increased during
late 1941, and so did the number of A.P.O.’s. With the
attack on Pearl Harbor, and the entry of the U.S. into the
war, a full system of numbered A.P.O.’s was established.

In
some cases there was a logical reason for a certain A.P.O.
number to be used. For example, A.P.O.’s assigned to service
infantry divisions were in most cases numbered the same as
the division. The 1st Infantry division was assigned A.P.O.
1. In other cases, the A.P.O. number coincided with a
regiment number. Certain geographic areas were assigned a
series of numbers. For example, numbers 825 through 837 were
assigned to specific bases in the Canal Zone, numbers 931
through 949 were assigned to Western Canada and Alaska, and
numbers 950 through 966 were assigned to Hawaii. There were
also other relationships between the A.P.O. number and sort
of soldiers the A.P.O. serviced, but many A.P.O. numbers
appear to have been assigned numbers on a random basis. In
all, about 1000 different A.P.O.’s were in use the period
between 1941 and the end of 1945.

The Purpose of this Work

Collectors being collectors, World War II A.P.O. cancels
have been collected from the day of their inception in 1941.
Until now, the primary method dealers and collectors had to
evaluate the proper price for an A.P.O. cover was to judge
the desirability of the geographical location of the A.P.O,
e.g., A.P.Os from Hawaii are considered less desirable than
A.P.O.s from Greenland. The method has had several serious
limitations. First, there has been nothing published in
order to rate the desirability of various locations. In
other words, had this work been nothing other than a
pamphlet rating such desirability, it would be a step
forward. The second limitation of the location method of
pricing is that it does not allow for variances in scarcity
of different A.P.O.’s from the same location. In contrast,
the book Military Postmarks of Territorial Alaska by Richard
Helbock shows a large range of rarity within the different
A.P.O. that were located in Alaska and western Canada.
Finally, the location pricing method could only have
validity if the only way to collect A.P.O. cancels was by
geographic location. There are, in fact, several different
ways collections could be formed, each way having a direct
impact on price.

A
major fallacy of the location method of pricing A.P.O.
covers is the implied assumption that roughly equal numbers
of covers exist from each different A.P.O. The truth is far,
far different from this. One of the starting points for this
work was an analysis of several very large A.P.O. cover
holdings. This analysis revealed several things. In a given
random holding of A.P.O. covers, at least half of the covers
will be from the 100 most common A.P.O. numbers. Four-fifths
of the of the remaining half of the covers will be from the
400 A.P.O. numbers that are common to moderately scarce, and
the balance will be from the remaining A.P.O. numbers which
are genuinely scarce to rare.

In
other words: assume you can find a random sampling of 1000
A.P.O. covers. Because of the nature of most A.P.O. cover
holdings this is a challenge, but more will be said about
that later. Of that 1000 covers, 500 will be from a group of
about 100 A.P.O. numbers which are the most common; 400 will
be from a group of 400 A.P.O. numbers which are less
commonly found; and the remaining 100 covers will be from
the 500 or so A.P.O. numbers which are scarce to rare.

The Nature of the Listings

The listing in this
work will be according to the A.P.O. numbers arranged in
ascending order. In the cases where there is a definite
relationship between a particular army unit, base, or
geographic locale, this is noted. Following the A.P.O.
number, the different countries where the A.P.O. operated
are noted. For the specific locations within each country,
please consult Cosentini and Gruenzner (eds.), United States
Numbered Military Post Offices, Assignments and Locations,
1941-1994, published by the Military Postal History Society,
1994. Next comes the heart of the work. For each country in
which the A.P.O. operated, there are three numbers. First is
the rarity of the A.P.O. in that particular country. This is
represented by a number which ranges from one, the most
common, to ten, the most rare. Second is the demand rating
of the location. This ranges from one, meaning the country
is currently in the least demand, to five, meaning the
country is in the most demand. Finally, this information is
calibrated into a fair current market price. The price
listed applies only to a clean, undamaged cover, standard
size with a fully readable A.P.O. cancel, dated up to
December 31, 1945. Only covers with a retail value of $5.00
of higher are priced. If the cover is either too common, or
in too little demand to deserve a $5.00 price tag, the
letters MV indicate that the cover has only a Minimum Value.
The price for a cover rated as MV will generally be
determined by the seller at the minimum amount he needs to
knowledgeably offer the cover to an informed buyer. The
price is akin the 15› minimum price in the Scott Stamp
Catalog.

The Elements of an A.P.O. Cover

Any cover, including
an A.P.O. cover, may be broken into six basic elements.
First, there is the postmark, or cancel. [The authors
recognize that strictly speaking, the term "postmark"
applies to that part of the postal marking containing the
date and location of mailing, while "cancel" refers only to
the portion which "kills" the stamp, but, since A.P.O.
postal markings tend to be applied by duplex handstamps and
machines, we will use the term "cancel" to represent the
entire postal marking.] While the postmark and cancel is
usually the most important factor in evaluating a cover, in
the case of A.P.O. covers it is also necessary to examine
the return address. The second basic element is the
franking. Third is the type of mail service that the cover
received, e.g., normal first class, airmail service,
registration or special delivery. Fourth is the destination
of the address. Fifth is any non-postal history elements
that are present on the cover, such as advertising, censor
markings or patriotic cachets. The sixth, and final element
of an A.P.O. cover, is the non-postal history
characteristics that can only be inferred form the cover.
Such factors include the significance of particular dates --
a December 7, 1941, postmark from Honolulu, or the fact that
a cover was sent from a famous person. In order to determine
a fair and reasonable price for any cover, it is necessary
to systematically evaluate each of these elements. Let us
examine in more detail these six elements as they apply to
World War II A.P.O. covers before we proceed to the listing.

The Cancel and Return Address

Most
A.P.O. covers have the A.P.O. number at some place in the
cancel, but there are some exceptions. During mid-1942, the
Army decided to remove the A.P.O. number from canceling
devices. This was meant to be a security measure. Since
every soldier was still required to write his A.P.O. number
in the return address, it was less than successful. By
mid-1943, A.P.O. numbers were placed back in the canceling
device. However some canceling devices, regardless of time
period, simply do not contain the A.P.O. number any place in
the cancel. Wherever there is no A.P.O. number in the
cancel, the A.P.O. is identified by the A.P.O. noted in the
return address. Under no circumstances should any cover be
identified by the A.P.O. number in the return address when
there is an A.P.O. number in the cancel. This is especially
important when considering covers canceled at BPO’s and
PRS’s. In these cases, the A.P.O. number in the return
address is almost always different than the A.P.O. number in
the cancel. In many cases with mail from the South Pacific,
the cover may display a scarce A.P.O. number in the return
address, but the cancel says BPO 7-- by far the most common
WW II postmark. The cover must be evaluated as BPO 7.

A.P.O.
covers need to have a readable date in the cancel to be
evaluated at the full price listed in the ratings. Poor
strikes are not uncommon. Without the month, day and year,
is often impossible to determine the location of origin of
the cover. This is particularly important in the case of
A.P.O’s which moved with the troops. Without the location,
there is little potential for any value.

The Franking

Franking on A.P.O. covers is usually quite monotonous. World
War II A.P.O. covers were usually either sent free, or at
the 6› concession Airmail rate. At least 95% of all A.P.O.
covers are either unfranked, franked with the 6› Transport
[Scott’s #C25] or franked with the 6› Airmail postal
stationery envelope [Scott’s #UC3 to #UC9]. For the
stationery collectors there are at least some minor
varieties that can occur on these airmail envelopes. While
of little intrinsic value, any other sort of franking is at
the least uncommon. There is probably a small premium value
for a cover where any other stamps are used, including
something as simple as two 3c Prexies. The little color such
frankings add to a collection of whites, reds and oranges
make for a positive change. Where a cover received a special
mail service, such as registered or special delivery, the
franking will reflect the service and add to the value of
the piece.

The Type of Mail Service

The
vast majority of A.P.O. covers did not receive any unusual
mail service. Therefore, the occasional parcel post cover,
as well as covers displaying such special treatment as
registration, postage due, or special delivery are always in
demand. The type of mail service a cover received is
determined by examining the endorsements, the markings
placed on the cover by the sender, the auxiliary markings
placed on the cover by the postal service and the franking.
Registered covers are usually of the greatest interest
because not only is there a degree of variance in the
franking, but the markings are different than those applied
to unregistered covers. Any cover receiving postal service
beyond the free surface rate or the concession air mail rate
is worth a premium.

Destinations

The
overwhelming majority of A.P.O. covers were mailed to
addresses in the United States, and a cover addressed to any
other destination is therefore unusual and desirable. These
other destinations fall into three categories. Most common
are covers to another A.P.O. These deserve the smallest
premium. Of some note is that fact that many servicemen in
the pacific theater endorsed their mail "Inter-Island Mail"
when sent to another Pacific Theater A.P.O. There is no
particular postal regulation requiring this, but for the
sender it was a matter of self defense. It took far less
time to go from say, New Guinea to the Solomon Islands, than
to go from New Guinea to San Francisco and then back to the
Solomon Islands. An "Inter-Island Mail" notation prompted
postal clerks to make certain a triangle route was avoided.

The
largest concentration of American troops overseas was in
England. Millions of serviceman were garrisoned there during
the war. In May 1944 alone, there were over a million and a
half Army troops in the United Kingdom poised for the D Day
attack. The postal regulations required that when a U.S.
serviceman sent a letter to a non U.S. military address in
Great Britain, a British foreign rate franking of 2 ½ pence
was required. This was undoubtedly a concession to the
British postal service. It certainly was a way of being a
good guest. It was a poor deal for the serviceman because 2
½ pence in the early 1940’s was far more money than the 5
cents the routing might logically require. A.P.O. covers
bearing British postage addressed to addresses in the United
Kingdom are not rare, but they deserve a premium.

Any
other foreign destination for an A.P.O. cover is scarce.
Such mail was charged the prevailing domestic rate for
international service. Airmail frankings are extremely
scarce.

Non-Postal History Elements
Present on the Cover

Traditionally, postal history has had a very narrow
definition. The international body that defines collecting
categories for the purposes of competitive exhibition, the
F.I.P., defines postal history as a collection "based on the
study and the classification of postal and philatelic items
which are directly relevant to the methods, routing and
condition of dispatch of postal communication of all
periods." Arguments about this definition have raged on for
years. Without reexamining every cogent point, the
definition is important to the many people who choose to
exhibit competitively. The effect of this definition is that
it categorizes certain features of covers as significant to
postal history, and other features to be not significant.
Because some feature of a cover is not significant to a
postal historian following the narrow F.I.P. definition,
does not mean that the feature is not significant to many
other collectors. Features such as these can be summed up as
external features, i.e., features which are not directly
relevant to the "methods, routing and condition of dispatch
of postal communication." An example of such an external
feature is the illustrated design on an advertising cover.

External features are often an important part of an A.P.O.
cover. For the most part, these include advertising,
patriotic cachets and censor markings. Advertising is quite
unusual on A.P.O. covers. It is always worth a premium. With
most advertising covers, the more unusual the subject matter
and the more elaborate the design means a higher price. This
is only part of the story with A.P.O. covers, for there is
usually more interest in designs that have some connection
to the war effort. Advertising on an A.P.O. cover is unusual
enough that it is seldom a factor in evaluating a cover.

Patriotic covers are more commonly encountered. A wide
variety are designs were produced covering a range of
themes. While in theory, these are no different than the
patriotic covers produced during the Civil War, the Spanish
American War and World War I, there is a significant
difference. Patriotic covers during these earlier wars
existed primarily to promote patriotic sentiments. During
the second world war, patriotic covers were produced
primarily to satisfy stamp collectors. While not in any way
disparaging the honest patriotic sentiments of the producers
of the World War II patriotic, if not for designs produced
and used by collectors, examples of patriotic envelopes
would be scarce or even rare. This leads to some difficulty
in placing proper significance to patriotics from the war.
They are enthusiastically collected, but generally by a
different sort of collector than the typical person who
collects A.P.O. ‘s.

Patriotic covers are mostly collected by first day cover
enthusiasts. This is a natural, since many of the people who
produced cachets for U.S. first day covers also produced
patriotic cachets. These collectors usually prefer their
patriotic covers to be pristine, showing little or no
indication that the cover went through the postal system.
Typically, collectors of A.P.O. covers are less adamant
about condition. Covers that carried mail show wear, and
covers carried in the extremes of war often show significant
wear. There is a tongue in cheek definition of a war cover
that demands that a true war cover have a bullet hole to
deserve a place in a purist’s collection.

While
patriotic designs used on A.P.O. covers are not uncommon,
and they do deserve a premium. However, the potential
desirability of such covers is limited by the philatelic
nature of the majority of collectible examples. The best way
to arrive at a fair premium is to determine exactly how
philatelic each example is. Establishment of the first
A.P.O.‘s in 1941 was announced in the Postal Bulletin, and
innumerable collectors created examples with a variety of
patriotic cachets. So many of these covers still exist, that
they can not fairly be evaluated as typical A.P.O. covers.
Once the U.S. entered the war, the nature of patriotic
covers changed somewhat. Collector interest focused on
domestic forts and camps, since the identity of overseas
A.P.O.‘s was not publicized and most were a bit too busy to
service collector requests. As the war dragged on, with
millions of U.S. servicemen overseas, the vast majority
serving behind the lines, more time was found to create
specimens for collectors. Most of these covers canceled at
overseas A.P.O.’s look enough like actual soldiers mail,
that making a determination as to what was a true patriotic
use and what was a collector created souvenir is difficult.
Sometimes recognizing the name of a collector as either the
sender or recipient is the only way to be certain the cover
was philatelically inspired. Proving true non-philatelic use
of a patriotic cover is the most important factor in
evaluating patriotic covers used from A.P.O.’s. It is also
necessary to consider the subject matter of the cover. Some
designs are quite common, and others are seldom seen. The
many humorous caricatures of enemy leaders that exists are
especially sought.

Censor markings on A.P.O. covers present both a dilemma and
a challenge to the A.P.O. collectors. With but a few
exceptions, censor markings on A.P.O. covers are
surprisingly similar and rather monotonous. Except for the
markings used early in then war, sometimes known as
provisionals, little has been written on the subject of
United States Army censor markings. With the seemingly
limited number of types, this would appear to be an area
ripe for further exploration. With the exceptions of
provisional markings, censor marks play little role in
evaluating A.P.O. covers. The after effects of censorship,
such as re-routing and return of unacceptable mail, will
affect the value of an A.P.O. considerably more.

Non-Postal History External
Elements

The
final factor to consider in evaluating the value of an
A.P.O. are any non-postal history elements which are not an
integral part of the cover. These include the historical
factors that surround the cover. Some collectors find the
date on which a cover was mailed to be very significant. For
example, while not applicable to A.P.O. covers, any piece of
mail dated December 7, 1941 from Honolulu usually sells for
a substantial price. December 7th was a Sunday, and such
items are truly rare. While some of the covers which have
come on the market appear dubious, the date and place is the
critical factor determining their price. A premium price is
occasionally seen on covers dated on V-E day and V-J day.
While there may be some increased demand for covers from
these days, they are no more scarce that the day before or
after. The fame of a cover’s sender or recipient will also
affect the price. There is a strong interest in mail from
commanding generals. The hand signed censor gives these
covers demonstrable value for the signature from an
autograph perspective. Covers sent from soldiers while they
were in combat are desirable and deserve a premium. These
are examples of the ephemeral aspects of a covers value.
They are the hardest to quantify. They are may be very
important to one collector while being meaningless to
another collector.

APO Premiums and Mitigating
Factors

After
all is said an done, what follows is a very basic guide to
the appropriate premiums and reductions for A.P.O. covers
deviating from an established standard. To repeat, that
standard for the purposes of evaluating covers is as
follows: A standard #6 size cover, dated to December 31,
1945, sent either free, franked with a 6c transport #C25 or
the 6c Airmail circular die envelope #UC3 to UC6. The fill
date must be completely legible.

1942 year date Add $2.50

V-Mail Add $5.00

Unusual censor Add $2.50 and up

Postage due Add $2.50

Auxiliary marking Add $2.50

To another A.P.O. Add $5.00

To a foreign destination Add $5.00 and up

Patriotic Add $5.00

Fighter/Bomber Squadrons Add $2.50

Unusual unit designation Add $2.50 and up

PPC Add $2.50

Illustrated V-Mail Add $10.00 and up

Registered Mail Add $10.00

Special Delivery Add $5.00

Blue "Honor" envelope Add $5.00

War Ballot Add $2.50

Franking other Free, #C25 or #UC3-UC6 Add $2.50

While in Combat Add 100% and up

Significant Date Varies

Sent to or from a significant person Varies
No back flap Deduct $2.50

Ragged edge Deduct $2.50

Creases Deduct $2.50

Philatelic Deduct $2.50

Legal Size Deduct $2.50

These premiums and mitigating factors apply
to APO covers values up to $25.00. On more expensive A.P.O.’s, adjust prices so
that each $2.50 move equals about 10% of the total value. The minimum price for
an A.P.O. is $2.50. If the combined mitigating factors would bring the price for
a cover to -$5.00, the cover goes to the junk box.

Rarity and A.P.O.’s

It is
impossible to evaluate any cover without examining the way
in which collectors choose to build their collections.
Understanding the ways a cover would fit into a collection
will tell what he potential demand for a cover might be.
Most covers are, in a sense, infinitely rare. Every piece of
non-collector created mail is uniquely different from any
other piece of mail. Some factor is virtually always
different, the place it was sent form, the address it was
sent to, the franking, the time of the posting all make each
cover somehow different from another cover. This would be
significant if there were a group of people each trying to
assemble a collection that consisted of every conceivable
piece of mail. Every cover would be an integral part of this
collection. With limitless rarity, and demand limited only
by the combined resources of such collectors, every cover,
no matter how mundane, would command a high price. This is a
farcical example because no such collectors exist.

A
cover is in demand only based upon how it fits into the
different collections being formed. A "unique" cover is not
unique if it is one of many examples that fits a place in a
collection. An A.P.O. cover from A.P.O. 5 dated July 1, 1944
at 4:00 PM from Sgt. Smith to Mrs. Jones in Iowa censored by
Lt. Johnson presents a combination of factors that are
undoubtedly one of a kind. If a collectors wants one example
of cover mailed on each day of the war, this cover needs to
complete with every other cover dated July 1, 1944. If a
collector wants one example from each A.P.O., the cover must
compete with every other cover mailed from A.P.O. 5.

Knowing that a particular cover is rare is of little value,
because from a certain perspective, every cover is rare. It
is more important to know that a particular cover is from a
collecting area that is in demand. However, knowing a
collecting area well enough to understand how the typical
collector arranges his collection is most important. If you
know what covers are necessary to make a collection
virtually complete, or fully representative of a collecting
area, then you can determine the significance of a cover.
Significance is a vital component to proper cover pricing.
The most valuable covers are covers that are useful for a
popular collecting area, and are examples of a particular
facet of the collection where no other cover will fit.

If a
collector has a goal of obtaining an example from every
location from every A.P.O. during the second world war,
certain covers will be more valuable to that collection than
others. A.P.O. 679 (Ikatek, Greenland) is one of the rarest
A.P.O. numbers. A.P.O. 9 (9th Infantry Division) is fairly
common, but was located innumerable locations. If a such a
collector has a cover from A.P.O. 679, which only exists
from one location, another example has little value to that
collector. An example from A.P.O. 9 from a town in Belgium,
where the A.P.O. was located for only three days, may be of
the highest importance to such a collector. If another
collector has a goal of finding every marking from every
unit stationed in Greenland, then the A.P.O. 679 cover is
far more important and valuable than the A.P.O. 9 cover from
a three day town in Belgium. But, if a collector’s goal is
to have an example of every A.P.O. from a town in Belgium,
then the A.P.O. 9 cover from that town, which only existed
for three days, is of the highest value.

Types of A.P.O. Cover Collections

By
Geographic Area - This has traditionally been the most
popular way to collect United States A.P.O. covers. Given
the worldwide distribution of U.S. forces during the war,
there are few places where at least some troops were not
garrisoned. Once a geographic area is chosen, the collection
usually includes examples of each A.P.O. located in the
area, sometimes examples of the different postal marking
each A.P.O. used, and occasionally examples of unusual
postal history usage from the A.P.O.’s. At their most
specialized, such collections include examples of the
different censor markings applied and examples form the
various military units making up the troops.

By
A.P.O. - This type of collection usually encompasses one
of two levels of depth. The goal of the most basic level of
this type of collection is to obtain an cover example from
each A.P.O. A deeper level is to obtain one example from
each location of each A.P.O.

By
Unit - With this sort of collection the focus is on the
military unit. There is no specific focus on the A.P.O., but
since many A.P.O.’s were specifically tied to certain
military units, any collection of this type is bound to
focus on those of A.P.O.’s. There seem to be three main
types of unit based collections. One focuses on a specific
unit, for personal of historical reasons. For example a
collector with an interest in the Japanese-American
interment camps in the U.S. might choose to collect covers
form the 442nd Infantry Regiment, the Nisei Regiment
comprised soldiers recruited form the camps. Some collectors
choose to collect covers from the unit where they, or some
relative, served during the war. A second focus of unit
collectors would be collecting covers from a certain type of
unit. Examples might be fighter squadrons, infantry
regiments or tank units. The third focus concentrates more
on the individual soldiers. This might include mail from
chaplains, pilots, or members of the Womens Army Corps
(WACs).

By
Traditional Postal History - In a collection entitled
"The Postal History of the U.S. Army Post Office in World
War II" the focus would be on the traditional postal history
themes as defined in the F.I.P. statement quoted earlier.
Such a collection would have only a limited concern about
each individual A.P.O., but rather a much greater concern
that the collection showed a full range of the postal
history of the overall system.

By
Battle - In this collection, the focus is on a
particular event of the war. The collection might be, for
example, focus on the the postal history of the battle of
Monte Cassini. The idea would be to tell the story of the
battle by showing covers from the many units taking part in
the battle.

By
Specific Location - Here the focus is one particular
place. The A.P.O. cover would only one part of a collection
which would cover a larger period. A collection of Berlin,
Germany postal history that covered at least up to 1945
would need to have a showing of U.S. A.P.O. covers as part
of the larger story.

By
Historical Factors - Although the most ephemeral part of
any A.P.O. cover, there are collectors who consider this to
be the focus of their collection. These types of collections
include items of particular significance based upon A.P.O.
and date, such a covers from A.P.O.’s in use during the June
1944 Normandy invasion.

As
Part of Another Collection - Any collection that focuses
on an issue or theme that would involve the years 1941 to
1945 should have A.P.O. covers as an important part of the
collection. As 20th century postal history has become
popular over the past few years, interesting A.P.O. covers
are vital to collectors who collect the 1938 U.S.
Presidential Issue or the 1941 Transport Airmail Issue.

These
are but a sampling of the ways in which A.P.O. covers are
collected and fit into collections. There is a general rule
about these types of collections which affect the demand for
any given A.P.O. It states, the more A.P.O.’s that fit into
a collection, the less demand for any given A.P.O.
Collectors who have a wide focus, such as a collection of
"U.S. forces in Belgium during WWII", and that collection is
in great depth, including different postal marking,
interesting postal history usages, different military units
and different censor numbers, will have an easier time
finding something to go into their collection. Such
collectors are often reticent to pay a high price for a
cover, since there is almost always another cover that they
can find to suit the needs of their collection. A collector
with a very narrow focus, such as a Belgian town cancel
collector, who wants one A.P.O. cover, and one A.P.O. cover
only, from the one A.P.O. that based in his town for only a
few days, is usually willing to pay a greater price for the
cover. That may be the only A.P.O. cover he ever buys. Both
hypothetical collectors want the same cover. The first
collector has 1000+ A.P.O. covers in his collection, is
certain to be able to add another 100 covers over the next
few years. The second collector has no A.P.O. covers in his
collection, and can see a need for one A.P.O. cover and one
cover only. It is only logical that the second collector
will pay more for the cover.

Interpreting the Listings

The
listings are arranged according to A.P.O. number. Details
are provided only for those A.P.O. numbers from which there
is evidence that a regular Army Post Office existed. A large
number of four and five digit A.P.O. numbers are known from
the return addresses on covers. These "high" numbers served
as transit A.P.O.s for groups of soldiers while they moved
from an assignment in the United States until they reached
permanent units overseas. High number A.P.O.’s are nearly
always seen in the return address on covers, never in a
postmark. They are considered to be beyond the scope of this
book.

Listed below each A.P.O. number is the country, or
countries, of the various overseas postings. The specific
location -- city, villages, etc. -- is not given unless that
A.P.O. was assigned to a base that was not mobile during the
war. Exact locations are available from Cosentini and
Gruenzner (eds.), United States Numbered Military Post
Offices, Assignments and Locations, 1941-1994, published by
the Military Postal History Society, 1994. In some cases,
there were several different places within a country where
the A.P.O. was located. Since it is beyond the scope of this
book to evaluate each individual location with each country,
the specific locations are omitted.

There
is some variation in price between different locations
within a country. It is an area which needs further study.
While it is logical to assume that the shorter the stay in a
particular place, the more scarce covers are likely to be
from that location, this is not always so. During a period
of intense combat, an A.P.O. tied to a unit may have been
listed at a location for three or four weeks. When the
resistance on that front is quelled, or the units was pulled
pack temporarily, the A.P.O. is then listed at a new, more
quiet location for five days. Mail from the four weeks of
combat will be scarcer than from the five days of down time.

The
heart of the work is a set of three numbers which represent
value. Using three separate numbers is something new and
different for a pricing work. The object was to arrive at
numbers which are useful to as many different people as
possible. Most pricing guides contain only a scale of
rarity, but a rarity scale is limited because the rarity of
a cover is only part story required to determine its fair
market price. Rarity is also very hard to define for A.P.O.
covers. The range of the scale is immense. The highest level
of rarity -- 10 -- encompasses several A.P.O.‘s where no
recorded examples are known. In other cases, only one or two
examples are known. At the other end, the most common,
rarity scale "1", includes Army Post Office units such as
BPO 7, where there must be easily five million collectible
examples, maybe many more. The rarity number listed
generally applies the A.P.O. number during the entire time
of the A.P.O. ‘s existence in the war. Only in cases where
there is strong evidence that the rarity of covers is
substantially different in different locations for the same
A.P.O. is a different rarity number used for the same A.P.O.
The rarity scales can be simplified in another way. A.P.O.’s
rated 1, 2 or 3 are the most common. As discussed earlier,
in a random showing of A.P.O. covers, at least half of the
covers will be from the A.P.O.’s with these most common
ratings. The middle ratings, 4,5,6 and 7, are seen
occasionally, covering virtually all of the rest of the
random sample. The highest ratings of 8,9 and 10 are only
very seldom seen. Random showings of A.P.O. covers are quite
unusual. The nature of A.P.O. covers is such that most of
the time when a new find of covers comes into the market, it
is from a correspondence. A group of letters that one
soldier sent to one person, is likely to have only three or
four different A.P.O. numbers. When a correspondence comes
to market, it can temporarily affect the supply of an
otherwise scarce number. Over time, the find gets
dissipated, and the market returns to normal. Knowing the
status of such finds is very useful in day to day buying and
selling, but the long term transitory affect has kept such
factors out of these listings.

The
next number in the listing is the demand scale. The demand
rating focuses on the desirability of the location. This is
a rating on a 1 to 5 scale of how much interest there is in
the particular area. It is both the most important and
unusual part of this work and bound to be the most
controversial. There is a specific linkage to the rarity
scale, the demand rating and the price. Rarity scales are
nothing new. An individual rarity number has potential for
controversy. An A.P.O. rated at 7 might engender discussion
that the more accurate rating is 6 or 8, but it won’t
engender discussion that the more accurate rating is 2 or
10.

Demand scales are subject to much more discussion. Numbers
in the demand scale are based on the best estimate of the
level of interest of an A.P.O. location to a collector in
the United States, or a dealer from overseas shopping in the
United States. They are not meant to rate overseas collector
demand. If the level of demand for a cover is higher from an
overseas dealer than from a domestic collector, the demand
scale will reflect that. In general, demand is believed to
be constant for each location, e.g., all A.P.O. covers from
Hawaii are expected to have about the same level of overall
demand, but that level is likely to differ from the demand
for covers from Germany. The exception for this usually
occurs in the case of the rarest A.P.O.’s from a location.
Overall demand for a location may be at a medium level, but
the demand for the rarest A.P.O.’s form the area is usually
much higher. The prices are derived from a computed market
index. This market index is the product of the rarity and
the demand scale. For the most part there is a direct
correlation with the market index and the price shown. When
a price is shown as Minimum Value, or MV, it means that that
item is too common to price with any accuracy. Items rated
MV will usually trade at a specified price which covers only
the handling cost of offering the cover. Since this is the
first attempt to publish a set of fair market prices for
World War II A.P.O. covers, the authors anticipate that
there may be some disagreement among readers over the listed
prices. These potential disagreements show the ultimate
value of a multiple part system. If one or two numbers of
the valuing system are considered reasonable, then, by
altering the number(s) considered erroneous, a reader can
make the system workable for his own needs. For example, if
one agrees with the rarity scale for an A.P.O., but
disagrees with the demand scale for the location, by
substituting a different demand scale, valuable information
is still available form this work. If one agrees with both
the rarity and demand scale, but still doesn’t like the
price, they can substitute different prices for the computed
market index (rarity times demand). The multiple numbers
give this work maximum flexibility. Rarity should not vary
much over time. Demand varies constantly. This work should
still be current five years from now by adjusting the demand
scale. As of today, there is strong demand from Europe for
many of the European Theater A.P.O.’s, especially those in
Germany. European collectors of local postal history have
begun to include United States. A.P.O.’s in their
collections. The demand rating reflects the fact that German
dealers are avidly searching for such covers. If and when
this activity stops, the demand rating and the prices for
such locations will fall. Currently there is little demand
for A.P.O.’s located in Hawaii. If collectors begin to
expand their horizons from Kingdom of Hawaii to Territory of
Hawaii, the demand rating and the prices will rise. Multiple
part listings are more accurate and flexible.